Clayton board ignores pleas to change law

I and many residents are fed up with the intentional neglect by members of the Clayton Town Council to amend Local Law No. 1 2007 for Wind Facilities on noise levels and turbine setbacks that will protect the residents. Over the past eight months, residents have brought to these town government officials results by four acoustic sound and engineering experts showing that residents who reside in this proposed industrial utility wind power plant face noise levels that exceed state and federal guidelines. After eight months, why is there still no action by Clayton Town Council?

Letters sent to the town by residents are asking for a local law that limits noise from industrial wind turbines to no more than a 5dBA above normal background sound levels at resident's property lines.

Currently, the wind law is designed to accommodate the noise levels expected by the developer PPM Energy. These levels are measured at the outside wall of a resident's home, disregarding one's property line, and are unhealthy.

Federal guidelines state that an appropriate level of noise in a bedroom during sleep is 24dBA (A-weighted decibels). However, our current local laws allow noise levels to reach 50dBA. State guidelines in New York state that an increase of 6dBA above normal background will cause complaints and should be avoided. According to the guidelines, an increase of 20dBA is intolerable.

PPM Energy, Clayton and Orleans all recognize that these guidelines will be exceeded. PPM Energy's noise assessment states that during hours of sleep 95 percent of the residents will suffer sound levels between 35 to 44dBA. It is inappropriate to have 62 wind turbines each 406 feet high within a half mile of over 2,500 residents.

In response to residents concerns, the town of Clayton in November 2007 commissioned an objective study of PPM Energy's noise impacts of the Horse Creek Wind Farm but has refused to provide the results to the public. Cape Vincent hired the same company to study noise impacts of a wind farm there and provided the results to the public. Cape Vincent's study shows that their sound analysis of their wind farm developer is seriously flawed.

I along with the majority of residents here are not against siting alternative energy sources like wind to help our economy. We want a safe and responsible industrial wind farm. We have shown our local government that placing 62 turbines in a four- by five-mile populated area is harmful to residents. To date the town leaders in Clayton continue to ignore the plea from residents to protect us.

For further information go to http://www.eccojeffersoncounty.org.

Patty Booras-Miller

LaFargeville

The writer is vice president of Environmentally Concerned Citizens Organization of Jefferson County.